This book presents a wide-ranging overview of Aristotle's political thought that makes him come alive as a philosopher who can speak to our own times. Beginning with a critique of subjectivist accounts of well-being, Kraut goes on to assess Aristotle's objective and universalistic account of eudaimonia and excellent activity. He offers a detailed interpretation of Aristotle's conception of justice in the Nicomachean Ethics, and then turns to the major themes of the Politics: the political nature of human beings, the city's priority over the individual, the justification of slavery, the defence of the family and property, the pluralistic nature of cities and the need for their unification, the distinction between good citizenship and full virtue, the value and limits of popular control over elites, the corrosive effects of poverty and wealth, the critique of democratic conceptions of freedom and equality, and the radically egalitarian institutions of the ideal society. Aristotle's political philosophy, as Kraut reads it, provides a model of the way in which a rich understanding of human well-being can guide the amelioration of a world in which agreement about the human good is rarely, if ever, achieved.

Richard Kraut's book...is an excellent addition to the burgeoning scholarly literature on Aristotle's political philosophy ... He is exceptional ... His book is a major contribution which must be consulted by all serious students of Aristotle's political theory. * Fred D. Miller, Jr, Mind *
This is an excellent introductory work ... The account is clear and stimulating, and presented in a simple and lively style. Specialists in Aristotle will probably not agree with the author on all points of detail, but in the work taken as a whole they will recognize the mark of penetrating exegesis. * The Philosophical Quarterly *

Richard Kraut is Morrison Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University, US